If We Were Villains: The Sensational TikTok Book Club pick: M.L. Rio

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When we first walked through those doors, we did so without knowing that we were now part of some strange fanatic religion where anything could be excused so long as it was offered at the altar of the Muses. Ritual madness, ecstasy, human sacrifice. Were we bewitched? Brainwashed? Perhaps." This story follows seven very pretentious theater students, going to a very prestigious and private college. They moved to Ohio to go to the university from all over the world, but they really made a found family with each other, while all living in what they call the Castle on campus. But one night their life completely changes when they all come together on a decision that alters their fate. M.L Rio’s plume is without contest deadly addictive. While reading and trying to dissect every complex character encountered during the course of this insane retelling, we keep swaying between hate and love, frustration and compassion. We question the gravity of their actions and the sanity of their thoughts. However, we don’t quite lose hope or faith on their souls. The obnubilating —unanswered— questions that were creeping like a sword of Damocles over the heads of our 7 talented characters; kept the story enticing and the obsession to satisfy the "unknown" alive. Who was the culprit? What was the triggering event that derived the trajectory of their promising futures into a grayer one, painting them as criminals, liars and void bodies? If We Were Villains was one of Bustle’s Best Thriller Novels of the Year in 2018, and Kirkus’s starred review reported that “[t]his novel about obsession at the conservatory will thoroughly obsess you.” Oliver - Our main protagonist, describes himself as the least talented of the group. The most ordinary.

Many readers including Cynthia d'Aprix Sweeney, the writer of The Nest, compared this novel to Donna Tartt's The Secret History. Actors are by nature volatile— alchemic creatures composed of incendiary elements, emotion and ego and envy. Heat them, up stir them together, and sometimes you get gold. Sometimes disaster."But maybe every day we let grief in, we’ll also let a little bit of it out, and eventually we’ll be able to breathe again. At least that’s how Shakespeare would tell the story.”

Lastly, I also found myself needing to read between the lines to connect the dots a lot, particularly in how the characters related to each other (without giving away). Sometimes, their relations with each other didn’t seem to have enough facts to support them.it's a good read; if you're a The Secret History readalike addict like me, it's not going to blow your mind, but it's entertaining, and i did really like the little turn at the end. it opens up a lot of questions about what will happen next, but it was a nice little surprise in a story i thought had already ended. A good Shakespearian actor - a good actor of any stripe, really - doesn’t just say words, he feels them. We all felt the passions of the characters we played as if they were our own. But a character’s emotions don’t cancel out the actor’s - instead you feel both at once. Imagine having all your own thoughts and feelings tangled up with all the thoughts and feelings of a whole other person. It can be hard, sometimes, to sort out which is which.”

If We Were Villains is part of this dark academia aesthetics that has a soothing place in my heart. So, of course, I fell in love with it. Their friendship founded on their similar taste is put on the line when they take part in increasingly crazy and experimental research on how, under the right circumstances, a person could develop supernatural abilities. Wren - Richard's cousin, a delicate flower. Another reviewer described her as 'the girl next door' which I think is a good description for her. I knew by then the way the story went. Our little drama was rapidly hurtling toward its climatic crisis. What next, when we reached the precipice?The book is an emotional and poignant retelling of the story of the Greek hero, Achilles, from the point of view of his best friend, Patroclus. For a clique of aspiring Shakespearean actors at an elite arts academy, the line between performance and reality dissolves, with disastrous results. A student in a highly selective MFA fiction writing program, Samantha couldn’t feel more of an outsider. As a scholarship winner, she is a stark contrast to the rich and unbearable clique of girls who make up the rest of her course.